In The Sudden Distance
(EP | Download)
Released: June 2008.
Label | Cat No: Zymogen | ZYM020
Free download

1. Box Of Broken Things
2. Embers
3. Cathedral
4. Downpour
5. From A Height

Written & produced by Jimmy Behan.
Photography by Laurent Batailley.

© Jimmy Behan / Creative Commons
www.zymogen.net


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REVIEWS:

Pascals Country Sounds
Delicate haunty chimes ring out above your pillowed young head. In bed, waiting for your parents to drive back in the dark. Each passing car’s headlines leaving douglas furs traces on the wall. You think something could have happened in the dark snow, leaving you and your bother behind. But they come back, safe. Door ajar, “just checking to see if you’re asleep”.
Another amazing release which is available for free from the artist themselves.
Cletus Buckley. 22 Jul 2008

Netlabels Revue
Il se passe toujours quelque choses chez Zymogen. Et souvent de bien belles choses comme en témoigne encore ce superbe EP signé de l’irlandais Jimmy Behan qui nous montre toute sa capacité à travailler les fields recordings et les sonorités numériques dans la construction de se morceaux à la fois ambient et expérimentaux mais où la mélodie et les belles harmonies sont toujours très présentes notamment et avant tout par la présence du piano.
A côté de ça il réussit parfaitement à donner vie à des ambiances aux reflets clairs-obscurs très belles, très palpables très évocatrices. Du grand art!
14 Sep 2008. 4.5/5

Netlabels & News
Nueva joya de la factoría Zymogen. En esta ocasión es un excepcional trabajo del irlandés Jimmy Behan, que hizo un master sobre Música y Tecnologías Multimedia. Su tesis estuvo centrada en las posibilidades de composición de las técnicas creativas del sampler y su trabajo aborda la relación entre el sonido y su entorno, así como la influencia de los distintos tonos sobre el estado emocional del oyente.
En este trabajo aborda el tema del paso del tiempo, ese fugaz transito; la continua transformación del presente en pasado, el cambio, la memoria…
El artista lo consigue de una manera magistral con acordes sueltos de piano, harpa y guitarra tratados electrónicamente entre efectos y texturas logrando cinco exquisitas piezas: unas mas emotivas, melancólicas y otras mas oscuras y abstractas, todas dentro de una elegantísima línea musical.
No deja de sorprenderme la capacidad de la música en general y de la electrónica en particular, para abordar y representar ideas, de tal manera que muchas obras del ambient actual se nos presentan como ensayos o reflexiones acerca de temas o conceptos, muy profundas y logradas. Muy recomendable.
millerindub. 21 Jun 2008

Musicaoltranza
Jimmy Behan approda alla modenese Zymogen con il seguito del suo album d’esordio datato 2004, questo In The Sudden Distance, che calza direi a pennello con la discografia della netlabel in questione: le 5 suite che compongono questo ep infatti sono più paesaggi sonori che canzoni, lunghi attimi di riflessione con qualche attimo in cui piccole distrazioni arrivano dai pochi suoni che si intromettono (poco prepotentemente) tra i pad e le “quasi” melodie che caratterizzano l’intera release.
Glitch e sperimentazione quasi fine a se stessa, rumore ed alienazione, pace e tranquillità…
Matteo Trifirò. 18 Jun 2008

Jazz e Arredores
Da Irlanda, país onde, como se soube há dias, vivem os novos gauleses da Europa, chega um ep de Jimmy Behan dado à estampa por essa estampa de editora imaterial que, nascida na Itália, dá pela graça de Zymogen. E o que ela edita tem geralmente graça. É o caso de In The Sudden Distance. Uns pingos de harpa aqui, um teclar de piano ali, a lembrar Erik Satie (até rima), electrónica acolá, a transformar e a borbulhar por toda a parte, poeiras em suspensão, enfim, ingredientes mais que suficientes para o caro Jimmy compor uma sessão despretensiosa, tranquila e aprazível, como certos fins de tarde de Junho, a escassos dias do Verão. Como me escrevia ontem um energúmeno não identificado, “isto das electrónicas não é jazz, não tem swing”. Pois não. Que chatice, veja lá. E eu a pensar que era e que tinha… Experimente flutuar, como a música de Jimmy Behan flutua. Haja sol!
Eduardo Chagas. 18 Jun 2008

FrostClick
In The Sudden Distance represents just about everything I love about Behan’s work. It’s perfect gloomy day music: ambient without being sleep-inducing, full of subtle energy, and very, very pretty.
He makes interesting use of high-frequency tones, glitch, and what I call “plink-plonk” - the sounds you would get if pianos were made of raindrops. But don’t get me wrong, this is not happy pixie music. Its darkness outweighs its light, giving just enough anchor to tracks that might otherwise have floated away.
Jimmy Behan is one of those artists I kind of discovered accidentally. I had a couple of his releases on my hard drive, but they were mixed in with a lot of other things I’d downloaded at approximately the same time, so I didn’t really notice they were there. Then occasionally a track would pop up on shuffle, and I’d think, this is great, who is this? I’d look at the name, and nine times out of ten it would be Jimmy Behan.
Track titles of Behan’s pieces reflect a depth of thought that one doesn’t always get on ambient releases. Box of Broken Things, a mixture of glitch and harp, is a great sonic description of what it’s like to be searching through ephemera on a gray Sunday in November. Tracks like Cathedral have more of an exploratory feel to them, while the last track, From A Height, leaves the listener with equal amounts of nostalgia and foreboding.
I love everything about this EP, from the artwork right down to the sonic and visual presentation. If you’ve got a dark winter weekend ahead of you and you’re looking to set the mood, you could certainly do a lot worse than putting on this set of songs on while you sit and drink your tea.
Mellissa P. February 2010